Breast pumps are well known devices for extracting milk from a breast of a user. A breast pump may be used if the baby is not itself able to extract the milk, or if the mother is separated from the baby, for example if away from the baby at work. The use of a breast pump to extract milk may also be used to stimulate lactation in women with a low milk supply.
Conventional breast pumps make use of a vacuum to induce milk extraction from a nursing mother's breast. The pumping action of the device draws the milk from the nipple, to a collection vessel, and may be adjusted to the preferences of the lactating female.
Breast pumps may be manually operated, for example by squeezing a handle or operation of a foot pedal. Breast pumps may also be electrically driven by a small electric motor.
A problem with conventional breast pumps is that users are known to suffer from discomfort or difficulty when using such a conventional breast pump. Female breasts vary in size and shape, however conventional breast pumps are manufactured to a uniform size which do not account for this. Therefore, there is the difficulty of maintaining contact and attachment.
When an infant feeds from its mother's breast, the baby applies two actions to obtain milk, sucking and a peristaltic movement created by the action of the infant's tongue on the nipple and areola of the mother's breast. The sucking action applies a negative pressure to latch onto the breast and induce milk flow. The infant can also perform a peristaltic stripping motion over the areola and nipple to induce milk flow from the breast. In this motion a rhythmic contraction and expansion motion is performed to induce the milk flow.
Furthermore, conventional breast pumps do not help to prevent or relieve engorgement. Currently, a user needs to steer her baby to feed with the chin against the engorged region of the breast, but this is inconvenient with the positioning of the baby. Conventional breast pumps do not address the problem of preventing or relieving engorgement.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide a breast pump which substantially alleviates or overcomes the problems mentioned above and aids the expression of breast milk from a breast in a way that is more analogous to the suckling infant.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a breast receiving funnel for a breast pump comprising an expandable layer formed from a hydrogel which is configured to expand such that an inner surface of the breast receiving funnel, against which a user's breast is locatable, swells towards said user's breast to apply a positive pressure thereto and aid the expression of milk therefrom.
Preferably, the inner surface of the breast receiving funnel is configured to contact a nipple and/or areola of the user's breast.